Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "John Dean: Sessions firing planned like a murder" video.

  1. Trump is a classic demagogue in every sense of the word. His demagoguery is associated with dictators, and it appeals to the worst nature of people. Demagoguery isn't based on reason, issues, and doing the right thing; it's based on stirring up fear and hatred to control people. Scapegoating: The most fundamental demagogic technique is scapegoating: blaming all of his troubles, bad behavior, or bad optics on other groups, usually the media, or people of different ethnicity, religion, or social class. This is done by projection. It relies on condemning others for what you're doing. Projection is absolutely necessary for effective scapegoating. Fearmongering: Many demagogues have risen to power by evoking fear in their audiences, to stir them to action and prevent deliberation. Trump and fox have mastered the art of fearmongering. Lying While any politician needs to point out dangers to the people and criticize opponents' policies, demagogues choose their words for their effect on their audience's emotions, usually without regard for factual truth or the real severity of the danger. Some demagogues are opportunistic, monitoring the people and saying whatever currently will generate the most "heat". Other demagogues may themselves be so ignorant or prejudiced that they sincerely believe the falsehoods they tell. Trump falls under both categories here. And When one lie doesn't work, the demagogue quickly moves on to more lies. Promising the impossible: Another fundamental demagogic technique is making promises only for their emotional effect on audiences, without regard for how they might be accomplished or without intending to honor them once in office. ( I'm going to build a great wall, and Mexico is gonna pay for it) Demagogues express these empty promises simply and theatrically, but remain extremely hazy about how they will achieve them because usually they are impossible. Personal insults and ridicule: Many demagogues have found that ridiculing or insulting others is a simple way to shut down reasoned deliberation of competing ideas, especially with an unsophisticated audience.  A common demagogic technique is to pin an insulting epithet on an opponent, by saying it repeatedly, in speech after speech, when saying the opponent's name or in place of it. This is easily one of Trump's favorite demagogues tools. Attacking the news media: Since information from the press can undermine a demagogue's spell over his or her followers, modern demagogues have often demonized the media, calling for violence against newspapers who opposed them, claiming that the press can't be trusted, or was secretly in the service of moneyed interests or foreign powers, or claiming that leading newspapers were simply personally out to get them.
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  2. John Dean served as White House counsel to Nixon from 1970 to 73, he was a key figure in the Watergate saga—participating in, and then helping to expose, the most iconic political scandal in modern U.S. history at the time. Today Dean believes Trump could be one of the most corrupt presidents ever—and get away with it. “The American presidency has never been at the whims of an authoritarian personality like Donald Trump,” Dean stated. “He is going to test our democracy as it has never been tested." Dean stated that he is not only convinced that Trump will be worse than Nixon in virtually every way—he thinks he’ll probably get away with it. “I used to have one-on-one conversations with Nixon, where I’d see him checking his more authoritarian tendencies,” Dean recalled. “He’d say, ‘This is something I can’t say out loud...’ or, ‘That is something the president can’t do.’” To Dean, these moments suggested a functioning sense of shame in Nixon, something he was forced to wrestle with in his quest for power. Trump, by contrast, appears to Dean unmolested by any such struggle."  Dean went even further in his assessment, stating: “I don’t think Richard Nixon even comes close to the level of corruption we already know about Trump.”
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